crowberry

Photo: Maseltov — CC BY-SA 3.0 de · source

Survives zone 2 through 6

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Crowberry — bland and watery; a famine/curiosity food.

Hardiness

Zone 2–6

Habit

Groundcover

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

July–Sept

Mature size

Prostrate evergreen mat 10–25 cm tall spreading 0.5–1 m, heather-like in appearance

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

4.0–5.5 — ⚠ STRICTLY ACID-LOVING (calcifuge). Will die on alkaline soil; use ericaceous compost + rainwater

Environment

Arctic and boreal heath

Native range

Circumpolar — across the arctic and subarctic of northern Europe, Asia and North America, and south into mountain and coastal heath, bog and tundra.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

3–8 cm/year — very slow, spreading outward as a creeping mat rather than upward.

Spacing

60 cm (24 in) apart — about 2.8 per m² (2.6 per 10 sq ft)

Leaf shape

Tiny needle-like evergreen leaves 3–6 mm long, arranged closely along wiry prostrate stems with their margins rolled right under — heather-like, and an adaptation to wind and cold rather than drought.

Root system

Shallow, fine and wide-creeping, with the prostrate stems rooting as they run to build a dense evergreen mat; heavily dependent on mycorrhizal partners in the peaty acid ground it grows on.

Fruit description

Round black berries 5–8 mm across, glossy, with watery, faintly resinous flesh and several small hard seeds; bland and seedy fresh, much better cooked or mixed with sharper fruit, and traditionally a major arctic winter food because they hang on the plant frozen all winter.

Propagation

Layering happens naturally where stems touch the ground, so rooted pieces can simply be lifted and separated. Semi-ripe cuttings root under mist; seed is slow and needs cold stratification.

Pollination

⚠ Dioecious — male and female flowers on separate plants, so a lone plant never fruits and a large mat can be entirely barren if it is one clone. Plant both sexes. Wind- and insect-pollinated. Note that the split is not absolute: hermaphrodite forms of this species have been recorded in Britain.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.